A passive optical network (PON) is one system for providing network access over “the last mile.” The PON is a point-to-multipoint (P2MP) network comprised of an optical line terminal (OLT) at the central office, an optical distribution network (ODN), and a plurality of optical network terminals (ONTs) at the customer premises. The P2MP architecture reduces the amount of fibers and/or equipment in comparison to a point-to-point (P2P) architecture, where an OLT connects directly to each ONT via a separate fiber. In some PON systems, such as Gigabit PON (GPON) systems, downstream data can be broadcasted at about 2.5 Gigabits per second (Gbps), while upstream data is transmitted at about 1.25 Gbps.
The PON system may comprise a control and management (C/M) plane that controls and manages the data transmissions. The C/M plane may comprise an embedded operation, administration, and maintenance (OAM) function and a physical layer OAM (PLOAM) function that mange a Physical Media Dependent (PMD) layer and a GPON Transmission Convergence (GTC) layer. Additionally, the C/M plane may comprise an ONT management and control interface (OMCI) that manages higher layers.